Honestly I see the best case scenario is 343 keeping what was offered in Halo 4 but also giving us a classic game type playlist as well. I want to go back to something more akin to Halo 2/3 MP. Where the weapons are on the map and the like.
"Classic Playlists' have been tried in Reach and Halo 4 and performed poorly. After a month, a classic playlist will average 500 players and ever other game will be unevenly balanced. That isn't fun to play even if the settings are good, and it's still just one playlist out of 20 (the exception was Anniversary, which was supported with a classic map pack).
Halo needs to not push all the fans of traditional gameplay into one playlist
again in favor of the post-trilogy settings. Not only have most of these settings been largely proven to negatively impact the game, but they also have dwindling populations. The remaining players that enjoy this gameplay would be better sustained in a single Grab Bag style playlist hopper, allowing the rest of the dormant Halo fanbase to repopulate traditional and brand new "complimentary" playlist
s. These are classic Team Slayer, BTB, Objective, Multi-Team, and whatever else works. Halo can clearly still move units considering the financial and critical success of the last games; however, if the game isn't keeping those consumers there, it should be obvious why.
If the new stuff that was offered in recent games was successful, it'd be a different story. Unfortunately, the gains have not justified the losses, so Halo needs to step back. If the next game continues to alienate and divide its own fanbase, Halo will struggle to keep any relevancy this gen.